A growing focus by investment banks’ sales and trading divisions on client analytics has placed an added responsibility on those who face customers the most – senior relationship managers.

As the job title suggests, the SRM is one of the most senior client-facing roles within a bank’s markets division. A successful SRM will build strong relationships with clients, understand their needs and help direct them to the person or service they require at a particular time.

The SRM may be sending a client to the London convertibles team today, and next week to the currency desk in Asia. Though many relationship managers will sit within markets divisions, they are increasingly required to provide a view over all of a bank’s services, including wealth management, retail services and transaction banking.

Peter Smith, a partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, said: “An SRM is almost like a vice-chairman – they represent the bank and attempt to leverage the benefit of the whole franchise to clients.”

A relationship manager will be proactive in foreseeing future issues. The ideal candidate is one who has a wide range of experience.

Jonathan Evans, managing director at executive recruiter Sammons Associates, said: “ The hires we have seen in this area are typically internal moves rather than external. Those with length of experience really lend themselves to the role.”

Stéphane Rambosson, a managing partner at executive search firm Veni Partners, said that “lots of sales [people] try and convert to the role – it is senior, better paid and more respected”. But, increasingly, SRM is not just about sales. Increasingly, these professionals are taking on analytical functions, determining touch points with clients and how profitable they are to the bank as a whole.

One SRM said: “I was brought in to help my employer be a lot more organised, efficient and systematic in the way we face clients. It is about developing client lists, prioritising the most important ones and allocating resources, be that people’s time or risk capital, most appropriately.”

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Philippe Morel, head of capital markets at consultancy the Boston Consulting Group, said in a recent report that implementing client-centric strategies would require changes in how investment banks operate: “They will need stronger governance from the top to drive these changes – and to foster employee behaviour that creates value.”

This added importance is being reflected in more senior reporting lines.

Smith said: “SRMs may once have reported into heads of sales, but they are now sitting at a much higher level. They are working with heads of markets and chief operating officers to really understand what a bank’s core client base is and how they can take wallet share from rivals with those clients.”

One such example is Laura Atherley, the global head of senior relationship management at Nomura, who held a similar role at the Royal Bank of Scotland. She now reports to both the bank’s head of global markets sales and its head of global markets. She also sits on the bank’s global markets executive committee.

But, like other areas, the role is not without its challenges. It is arguably an area ripe for cost savings and improvement.

In a joint report earlier this year, Oliver Wyman and Morgan Stanley said: “We estimate up to $30 billion of industry costs are tied up in client-facing roles through a combination of relationship managers, corporate finance and transaction banking product specialists, secondary trading product specialists and other management roles.”

The analysts added they saw “significant potential for cost reduction from stripping out inefficient, duplicative layers of sales, coverage and client service”.

So, what does that mean for the SRM of the future? BCG’s Morel said that it could put added emphasis on the role as banks determine in which products and areas to specialise. He said: “Until recently, client focus was predominantly the playing field of relationship experts. However, many investment banks are increasing their investment in client-centric initiatives, reviewing their segment and coverage models, and continuing to reduce their long tail of unprofitable clients.”

That suggests the role is opening up to others, particularly with cross-asset class expertise. Rambosson said: “There is, maybe, more importance placed on the SRM role now than before. Clients like to have a contact point with a bank at a senior level, but part of it is also rationalising relationships over several asset classes.”

Heidrick’s Smith added: “A good SRM is increasingly someone who has been a senior professional within a markets division. They don’t want to run a P&L, but want to stay involved in promoting the broader client franchise.”

This article was first published in the print edition of Financial News dated June 2, 2014